Art Notes: Free admission on Thursday at Akron Art Museum

By Dorothy ShinnABJ/Ohio.com correspondent

Tuesday

May 14, 2019 at 9:40 PMMay 14, 2019 at 9:41 PM

For the 10th anniversary of Art Museum Day, the Akron Art Museum will join the Association of Art Museum Directors and hundreds of institutions across North America in offering great opportunities for museum audiences from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday.

This year, the Akron Art Museum, 1 S. High St., offers free admission to all who visit on Art Museum Day. Additionally, the museum will take 25% off the regular price for new membership and give double discounts for members in the museum shop and café.

Free programs for kids, families and adults include "Kids After-School Mind-Unwind" from 4-6 p.m., and a tour of African American artists in the museum collection, led by Chief Curator Ellen Rudolph from 6:30-7:30 p.m. For more information: akronartmmuseum.org.

Free for members, the exhibit tour at the museum offers viewers insights as to the motivations and process behind the ongoing series of portraits of the artist’s extended family living in and around Akron.

Begun in 1998, “Family Records” documents evolving interpersonal connections between parents and children, siblings, spouses, cousins and other relations through the highs and lows of life in the Rust Belt region.

Shot each summer when the artist — now based in Austin, Texas — travels back to Ohio, this series features scenes from festivities such as birthday parties and weddings as well as intimate portraits set outside homes and workplaces. Touched by celebrations and struggles including marriage, divorce, addiction, new homes, unemployment, new jobs and babies, the lives of Vitone’s relatives reflect experiences common to families across the United States.

Members who wish to participate still need to register. To do so for free, go to http://bit.ly/2W5tcus. 330-376-9186.

Mona Lisa bookings

Paris’s Musée du Louvre will require all visitors to have reservations for the blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition set to open there this fall on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance master’s death.

This decision comes in the wake of the 25% increase in visitors that the museum experienced last year, totaling a record-breaking 10.2 million (a boost that may be partly attributed to Beyoncé and Jay-Z filming a music video at the institution).

The museum will begin offering specific time slots via its online booking service beginning June 18 at http://bit.ly/2vYjVG2. The Leonardo da Vinci show is slated to open in October.